Donald Trump was never a comfortable golfer.
Not as president of the United States, a polarizing position long before the advent of Twitter or any other form of social media. Not even when he merged his affection for golf with his ambition to serve the wealthy in his hotels and golf courses.
The star of any golf tournament at the elite level is usually the player or the course. Unless it was on its course, and then Trump did that about him.
And now it’s coming to an end, if it’s not there yet.
He was effectively fired.
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Trump was silenced on Twitter and faces impeachment for “inciting insurrection” due to his supporters’ invasion of the nation’s Capitol last week. On a much smaller scale – it should be, anyway – he suffered a defeat when the PGA Championship was removed from his golf club in New Jersey in 2022.
America’s PGA voted on Sunday night to terminate the contract. More than being the right thing to do, it was the only thing.
“We find ourselves in a political situation that was not ours,” Seth Waugh, CEO of PGA of America, told the Associated Press.
The contract with the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, was signed in 2014, when the Trump platform was a reality show and not the White House. A year later, Trump announced that he was seeking the Republican nomination for president, and then he really started making golf feel uncomfortable with his relationship with him.
His derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants when announcing his candidacy in June 2015 forced golf organizations to uncomfortably enter politics. The reaction was still strong when Trump joined the Golf Channel and said the golf industry supported him because “they know I’m right”.
The PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, the PGA of America and the USGA issued a statement saying that he was wrong. And a week later, the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in its Trump National Los Angeles was canceled.
It wasn’t just tournaments on their golf courses.
Trump said in an interview with Golf Digest in 2014 that golf was wrong to try to make the game accessible to the masses. “I would make golf an aspiration, instead of trying to bring everyone into golf, so they will never be there,” he said.
Waugh imagined that America’s PGA would be criticized in some quarters for taking four days to decide the obvious. This would not be the first time that golf would be accused of slow play. In this case, he said that there are procedures to be followed and, undoubtedly, a contract to be analyzed in the event of a judicial challenge.
“Our decision was not about speed and time,” said Waugh. “What matters most to our board and leadership is to protect our brand and reputation, and the ability of our members to lead the growth of the game, which they do through so many powerful programs in their communities.”
R&A has avoided doubts about the British Open’s return to Turnberry since Trump bought the picturesque links off the coast of Ayrshire, Scotland, in 2014. He finally demonstrated on Monday morning with a statement that he will not return there ” until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the field ”.
“And we don’t believe this is possible in the current circumstances,” said R&A chief Martin Slumbers.
What other golf course is it?
Along with the US Women’s Open in Bedminster and the Senior PGA Championship at Trump National in Sterling, Virginia, Trump’s camps have already hosted two stops on the PGA Tour (Doral and Puerto Rico), and the first major tournament on one of its courses was the LPGA Tour Championship at Trump International in West Palm Beach, Florida. He made sure that each player had a BMW as a courtesy car. He invited them to his Mar-A-Lago resort.
And he made sure it was the show and was in charge.
One year, Karrie Webb hit the tee shot on the par 3’s seventh hole that looked like it was rolling back into the water until it was held by the rough. That night, Trump said that Webb was lucky that the shot should have gone into the water. Why wasn’t the grass cut harder on the slope? That night, he had his team scrape the edge and it was so tight that green spray paint was needed to cover the dirt.
This was in the middle of a tournament.
At the World Golf Championship in Doral in 2015, Rory McIlroy was so disgusted with his shot at par 3 eight that he threw his iron 3 into the lake. This happens in a sport that can be annoying even for the best. Trump took advantage of the moment by hiring divers to recover the club and made a show of returning the club to McIlroy at the booth before the final round. It didn’t matter that McIlroy already had a replacement.
“He never misses an opportunity,” said McIlroy.
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That’s one of the reasons why Doral, a Florida swing landmark since 1962, last hosted a PGA Tour event in March 2016.
It wasn’t about politics. It was about Trump. The tour was unable to find a sponsor willing to shell out about $ 12 million a year, knowing it would share the stage with Trump. The tournament went to Mexico, from everywhere.
At that time, the relationship that golf had with Trump was hampered by his ego and elitism. It is now about the threat to democracy, violence and destruction that killed five people, including a Capitol police officer.
There is no relationship with Trump and golf tournament, not anymore.
Golf cannot let that happen again.